A 72-year-old male presents to the emergency department (ED) with severe chest pain and difficulty breathing after an MVC. Physical examination reveals tenderness and localized swelling over the left lateral chest wall, with X-ray confirming multiple rib fractures. The patient’s vital signs are stable, but he is visibly distressed and struggling to find a comfortable position. What are nerve blocks? Nerve blocks involve administering local anesthetic near specific nerves to block pain signals …
PoCUS Previews 02: Intro to Image Generation
Welcome back to PoCUS Previews, your illustrated guide to the world of Point of Care Ultrasound (PoCUS)! This month’s infographic will focus on image and probe orientation, different probe movements that can be used to generate these images, and some common artifacts (or abnormal alterations in ultrasound images). Ultrasound images can be challenging to interpret when we consider their dynamic nature and varying conventions that surround them. This infographic breaks down the orientation …
SHoC-ED2: Ultrasound and ECG findings as predictors of cardiac arrest outcomes in the emergency department
This month CanadiEM is featuring an article from the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine that looks at the use of point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) and ECG findings in emergency department (ED) cardiac arrest patients. While current Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) protocols do not mandate the use of echocardiography, cardiac PoCUS is increasingly being used in ED cardiopulmonary resuscitation1,2. Studies have shown that an absence of cardiac activity on ultrasound is associated with a …
Handheld Ultrasound – A Review of the VScan
As it seems to be ultrasound month on BoringEM (see the guest posts from Paul Olszynski here: A Pictorial Approach to Ultrasound in Shock and Chris Byrne here: Point of Care Ultrasound: A Hyperechoic Future in Med Ed), I thought I’d chime in with a review of my new toy. I just completed a four week rotation at a regional ED that is not equipped with an ultrasound unit. Fortunately, my residency program purchased a GE VScan handheld ultrasound machine for …
Point of care ultrasound: a hyperechoic future in Med Ed?
A little over a year ago, I was working a shift in the emergency department when I noticed an enthusiastic consultant briskly wheeling a portable ultrasound machine to a patient’s bedside. I introduced myself and asked if I could observe the scan. Until this point, ultrasound had retained a certain mystique. However, that was quickly erased by a deep, yet efficient, bedside lesson in anatomy, physiology and clinical medicine that left a lasting …
A Pictorial Approach to Ultrasound in Shock
I just finished preparing an introductory talk on shock & ultrasound. Ultrasound in shock in 50 minutes! After having struggled considerably with the breadth of the topic, i struggled even more with the summary. How does one sum up such a huge topic? In the end, I decided to go with a picture (we all know the saying). Learning theories suggest that in order for a person to learn something new, that new …